This afternoon James Chapman claimed Vince Cable will be helping him launch his new party:

It’s news to Vince. A LibDem spokesman says Cable may attend anti-Brexit events but will not have anything to do with ‘The Democrats’:

“There is no question whatsoever of Vince Cable supporting the launch of a new party, as James Chapman is suggesting. A new party is completely unnecessary.”

During literally hundreds of non-stop tweets today Chapman has repeatedly called Theresa May and his former boss David Davis “Nazis“. He has also had an interview with Channel 4 News cancelled diplomatically for “technical reasons”. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Journalists and Remainers enabling this single-sourced nonsense need to take a look in the mirror…

Does Jo Swinson regret not running for leader and allowing a Vince Cable coronation? Her colleagues certainly do. Following doddery Vince’s not very LibDem claim last week that race and gender are no longer issues in politics, Swinson has issued this slap down. Which is about a subtle as a brick.

Fringe party leader, who got the job because no one else wants it, indulges in senile fantasy. Meanwhile on planet earth the US president promises comprehensive free trade deal “very, very quickly” with the world’s most dynamic economy. Before the EU…

Vince Cable is facing accusations that he is too old, doddery and out of touch with the current Liberal Democrat party to be a successful leader. He has confirmed all three charges in an interview with the New Statesman. First he invoked Godwin’s Law and compared Theresa May to Hitler:

“I thought that particular phrase [‘citizens of nowhere’] was quite evil. It could’ve been taken out of Mein Kampf. I think that’s where it came from, wasn’t it? ‘Rootless cosmopolitans’? It was out of character for her.”

Then he claimed gender and race are longer issues in British politics:

“Gender isn’t an issue any more, rightly so. Thanks to Obama, race isn’t really an issue any more – at least, we hope not. And age shouldn’t be, either. It should be who you are and what you have to say.”

Which is certainly not what most LibDems think. And probably an unwise thing to say for the potential leader of a party which has always struggled in terms of female and ethnic minority MPs. Can’t imagine Swinson making these unforced errors…

74 year-old Vince Cable has announced he is running for LibDem leader. Ming Campbell was 66 when he was forced out because he was too old…

Tom Brake has suggested that he is out of the running, tweeting: “Thanks for your kind words of support & encouragement, but my focus remains on local issues & serving the people of Carshalton & Wallington”. Cable, Davey and Lamb left. The field narrows…

The bookies’ favourite Jo Swinson has decided not to stand, noting “most blokes in my shoes would run for leader like a shot”. Indeed she has a point, the remaining field is a bunch of boring bald, grey or balding, grey blokes ready to lead the LibDems into mediocrity.

Norman Lamb: The new bookies’ favourite, probably because he has been so loudly taking soundings about whether he should run.

Sir Ed Davey: LibDems are increasingly tipping Davey as the most likely next leader. Has a growing online band of supporters sharing stories about how he saved a woman’s life. Wants it badly.

Sir Vince Cable: Now the third favourite, Vince’s odds have moved out over the last few days as LibDems look for a younger option. Though his supporters will argue Swinson stepping aside could see him as a two-year caretaker option.

Tom Brake: Not grey or bald but human beige. Still hasn’t ruled himself out. Probably should.

The LibDems have 12 MPs, and it is entirely possible a third of the parliamentary party could put themselves forwards as leadership candidates to replace Tim Farron. And there will be more knights running than women. Guido brings you your runners and riders…

Jo Swinson: The early favourite. Won her seat back in East Dunbartonshire, at 37 her allies say she is the youngest, freshest candidate and more exciting than Vince Cable, who would take the party “from Dad to Grandad“. But are the LibDems ready for a woman leader?

Sir Vince Cable: He has always harboured ambitions and his allies say he could be an interim “Brexit leader” who would run the party for two years before stepping aside and allowing Swinson to fight an election. Though Vince has gone a bit funny recently, his Diane Abbott moment during the campaign will not inspire the confidence of members.

Sir Ed Davey: No secret he’s always fancied the job, he began scheming against Farron as soon as he won his seat back. His irritable personality isn’t exactly endearing and he was the Energy Secretary who struck the “worst ever” deal for Hinckley Point, and then took a job as a paid lobbyist for a firm representing the successful bidder. Is that really the sort of person the LibDems want?

Norman Lamb: Held his seat against the odds and now the bookies make him second favourite to be leader. Last night he told Question Time that he was thinking about running. Seems a more decent bloke than some of the others on this list, though that isn’t hard. Sensible enough to defy Farron and abstain on the Article 50 vote rather than vote against.

Tom Brake: Tipped by the Guardian to the amusement of LibDem colleagues. He is known in LibDem circles as “human beige”. Mired in all sorts of murky goings on in his rotten borough of Carshalton. Those local stories would soon go national if he were leader.

Alastair Carmichael: Proven liar, but since when has that ever stopped a LibDem? Has ruled himself out.

There is a lot about the Tory campaign that has caused huge anger among MPs. Though little provoked more fury than the decision by CCHQ to divert resources away from supposedly ‘safe’ seats that the Tories then went on to lose. Guido has heard from several defeated MPs who were continually assured by HQ that their seats were safe. The decision was taken centrally to pull resources out of these constituencies and divert them to target seats like Ealing Central. Some MPs themselves were even sent to knock up in others seats on polling day. This complacency was fatal for several MPs. They ended up losing their seats by small margins, while in Ealing Rupa Huq increased her majority from 274 to 13,807.

MPs repeatedly warned CCHQ that large numbers of Labour and Momentum activists were flooding their perceived safe seats, while their local Tory campaigners had been relocated elsewhere. They were told not to worry. Then they lost their seats. What an extraordinary clusterf**k.

Vince Cable tells Susanna Reid the LibDems’ new public sector pay policy will affect 1 million workers, then 2 million workers, then 5.4 million. Vince has just been given the grand title of LibDem Treasury spokesman, so he has no excuse…

Publicly the LibDems are telling voters they cannot work with Labour because Jeremy Corbyn is “toxic“. This bombshell tape from LBC and Sky News exposes that fib for what it is. Vince Cable and Sarah Olney have been recorded telling members they should collaborate with Labour – Olney says she wants Labour’s Rupa Huq to win in Ealing, meanwhile Vince Cable says the LibDems should be “tactical” to help Labour in some seats because, in the case of Huq, “on almost every issue our views were almost identical”. Wonder what the voters of Richmond Park and Twickenham think about their LibDem candidates plotting to help Corbyn? Coalition of rubbish…

UPDATE: Zac Goldsmith reacts:

“As usual with the LibDems, what they say publicly is completely at odds with what they say and do in private. Having publicly said they wouldn’t do a deal with Jeremy Corbyn, it’s now clear they are actually plotting to help him succeed.”

Guido sources confirm that Zac intends to be a candidate in the by-election he is triggering in protest at the decision to build a new runway at Heathrow.

Richmond is traditional LibDem territory and may be receptive to a Remain/LibDem by-election putsch. CCHQ is worried that a post-Brexit LibDem revival would put Richmond and neighbouring constituencies back in the hand of the LibDems. Could we see the return of 73 year-old Vince Cable?

Will the Conservatives even put up a candidate against Zac and split the right-of-centre vote?

Vince Cable is in trouble after two West London business leaders referred him to the Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary over an apparent breach of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. The chief executives of West London Business and the Hounslow Chamber of Commerce have written to the PM and Jeremy Heywood after Cable was listed as a speaker at an anti-Heathrow expansion rally in his capacity as Business Secretary:

We are very concerned that the Secretary of State appears to be attending the rally in an official capacity, on behalf of the Government, rather than as constituency Member. This appears to be in direct contravention of Section 1.2 (h) of the Ministerial Code, which states:

“Ministers in the House of Commons must keep separate their roles as Minister and constituency Member”

This activity may also breach other parts of the code, including section 6.5 which urges Ministers to “make clear that they are acting as their constituents’ representative and not as a Minister”.

It is a little naughty of Cable to speak out on Heathrow expansion not as a local MP, but supposedly representing the government. Not like he has form either: this is the same Vince Cable who“declared war” on Murdoch when in charge of media policy. That time he humiliatingly had the brief stripped from him…

Full Obornian disclosure: You may have noticed some small Heathrow and Gatwick adverts on the site recently. Readers can rest assured they are irrelevant to this story. Guido just doesn’t like Vince Cable.

UPDATE: Sources close to Vince Cable get in touch to say the mistake was the fault of the organisers of the event. As soon as it came to his attention it was corrected.

The gloves are coming off between the Tories and the LibDems in the dying days of their coalition. Downgraded Business Secretary Vince Cable has been allowed to appoint a new taxpayer funded adviser – his third – despite there being only 2 months left before the government is dissolved. This infuriates the Tories, and they have let rip: “We all know the LibDems are on the brink of bankruptcy”, says Tory MP Julian Smith; “this is a naked attempt by the them to plunder the public finances to bankroll their faltering election campaign.” Victoria Pine, a former lobbyist, will be paid by the taxpayer until the end of March, during which time there will be almost zero government activity. Cable’s other two spin doctors are paid £60,000 each, though Pine’s salary remains a mystery. “You can’t trust a word the Lib Dems say,’ claims Labour’s Sheila Gilmore. “They used to say Special Advisers shouldn’t be paid for by the taxpayer but in Government this has become just another broken promise. Taxpayers will rightly be asking why, at a time when this Zombie Government is barely staggering along, the Libs think it’s appropriate to add more and more advisers to the payroll.” A spokesman for Vince Cable tells Guido lamely: ‘There are already 3 Tory special advisers in BIS and so, as approved by David Cameron, we have brought the number of LibDem spads in BIS up to parity’.

Nick Clegg has also pulled a similar stunt. The Deputy Prime Minister has two dozen taxpayer-funded Special Advisors, and has added another to the list just in time for the election. Ruwan Kodikara has joined Clegg’s team as the his spin-tastic “Head of Media & Brand”. It would be a tough job for anyone to turn around the Lib Dems’ toxic image in just 107 days, but Kodikara has years of experience spinning for the bad guys. Having been a lobbyist for big energy, bad banks, private healthcare and nuclear energy, is he ready for his toughest job yet? Presumably Clegg’s promise to clamp down on lobbying and create a “cleaner, better politics” has gone the same way of his pledge not to raise tuition fees…

It must be tough spinning for the curmudgeonly old Vince Cable. So hard in fact that he’s had to hire not one but two media handlers at a cost of over £120,000 to the taxpayer. BIS are seeking “two highly motivated, strategic and news savvy and politically astute” deputy heads of news to fill what was once a single job. Cable polishing skills essential for your £56,000…

Four days after the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards announced she would be launching an inquiry into Vince Cable’s failure to declare the Lord Oakeshott poll in his constituency as a gift, this entry appears in the Business Secretary’s Register of Interests:

Name of donor: Lord OakeshottAddress of donor: privateAmount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: conducting a local opinion poll, value £6,000Donor status: individual

Tessa Munt has still failed to declare the poll in her constituency.[…] Read the rest